Importance of sustainability emphasised at JCC
Quoting the Solomon Star newspaper – 30 January 2019
“THE importance of sustainability in terms of harvesting and using of current available forest resources has been highlighted at the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) comprising of various line ministries and stakeholders that has convened its fourth and first meeting for year 2019 recently.
“JCC was established as one of the monitoring mechanism under the Sustainable Forest Resource Management (SFRM) Project implemented by the Ministry of Forestry and Research in collaboration with Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
“In his opening remarks, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Forestry and Research Dr Vaeno Vigulu says the current caretaker government, Solomon Islands Democratic Coalition for Change Government (SIDCCG) sees the importance of sustainability seeing the fast harvest of our available forest resources.
“Equally, the government is also keen to maximize benefits to the resource owners along with other measures to be considered that are priorities, he adds.
“The Permanent Secretary says at a sustainable rate in terms of harvesting the available forest resources, it is between 300,000 to 400,000 cubic.
“Currently the harvesting rate is beyond sustainable and the Ministry of Forestry and Research will be working on making a huge reduction in terms of cubic meters in the years to come.
“This declining trend is to be enforced down to a reasonable sustainable figure that reflects the current available forest status, he says.
“Dr Vigulu says as such decision making into whatever available options must be considered; Sustainable Forest Resource Management is one such alternative means.
“He acknowledges the collaboration with the Japanese Government under JICA and the Ministry of Forestry and Research as first of such with the ministry and is a project of hope.
“With the progress made so far, two established pilot sites - Falake Community in Kwara’ae, Malaita and Kumoniboli Community in East Guadalcanal, Guadalcanal. We are committed and grateful to continue to do the good work this year.”
“The Permanent Secretary also welcomes the SFRM short-term experts under JICA who will be part of the collaborative efforts to run activities at the identified pilot sites.”
Copyright @ 2018, Solomon Star News.
